• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Can I take you back to the number of recruits? Can you tell us how we're going to ensure that this opportunity - I'm talking about increasing numbers - is going to be used to ensure that the police represent the population of London? It will not be acceptable to any Member here or to the MPA if, by increasing the numbers over the next two years, we end up with the current profile. I'm talking about the police force being 90% white male. That cannot be acceptable in our city. So, how are we going to deal with that?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

I'd hoped that we would say what are the appropriate targets, rather than the Home Secretary.

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

We're very supportive of the MPA's policy to devolve as much as possible to the boroughs. Certainly on my patch, we agree with your expectation that the public should expect to see police officers around every corner. But isn't there a conflict between what we are proposing and the National Policing Plan? It does seem that if we are to continue with this policy of devolution, we are going to be opposing what the Home Secretary wants to do, which is to set targets nationally. How are we going to cope with that?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

So, that is an assurance that numbers aren't going to plummet after the restrictions are removed on 1 April?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Sorry, virtually all. Even better, Toby, and that goes for my link borough of Islington and my home base of Haringey. But there is fear in Haringey, for sure, that 40 officers who would wish to be taking jobs elsewhere are being blocked from moving. And I just wanted your assurance and wondered if you would be able to reassure me that not only will the numbers be up to strength on 31 March, but they will be sustained as such from 1 April onwards.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

It's very welcome that we've received assurances that the majority of the new police officers will be in the boroughs by 31 March.

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Can we just take that further? So, what evaluation has the MPS made about how the police are actually used; whether it's the evaluation of police being located in schools, or on council estates, in terms of deterring crime?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Can you tell us about any additional work that you're undertaking in terms of accommodation of those 1,000 extra police and other staff, in terms of physical space, equipment, costs, and have you bottomed out past years' discussions of what the costs are?

• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 13 November 2002

Obviously I am aware that the Police Service is responsible for operational issues. What incentives can the MPA give, in terms of deployment of these officers, so we see a less fragmented approach? It seems to me that across London, we see certain divisions doing some very innovative work of locating policemen with secondary schools or based on council estates with crime initiatives. What can you do to give incentives in terms of the budget, in terms of providing these additional police, to make sure they're used effectively?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 27 March 2002

Tony Arbour's first point is that currently communities don't have much of a chance of getting involved in plan making. The whole process is very obscure and, as most of us know, it takes about eight years to get an UDP in place. The pace of change is utterly glacial. Would you agree then that maybe the right place for communities to get involved in plan making and in the whole planning process is, as is set out in the green paper, in a system which turns over much faster, with local developments, frameworks tied into community strategies and with...